During the pandemic more shoppers moved online than ever before - and many plan to continue their newly formed shopping habits into the future.
This means brands are under increased pressure to put in place impactful eCommerce marketing strategies. But if they manage to do this they stand to gain a lot. With this in mind here are ten top eCommerce strategies to try in 2023.
To keep up with consumer behavior's and take advantage of this growing online audience brands need to implement a range of eCommerce marketing strategies. Otherwise they'll lose out to digitally savvy competitors.
By putting in place an up-to-date eCommerce plan brands will benefit from increased visibility top of mind awareness engagement and online sales. It's also important that these strategies are regularly updated to adapt to rising trends emerging digital channels and new technologies.
When it comes to creating an eCommerce strategy there is no one-size-fits-all solution. It all depends on the needs of your audience your industry and your own business. Before choosing an eCommerce strategy it's important to lay the groundwork and assess these three things first:
In order to choose the most impactful eCommerce marketing strategies understanding your customers is essential. This means your team needs up-to-date customer personas sales funnels and customer journey maps.
Brands also need to learn from past behavior and changing consumer sentiment. So gather as much data as possible. Look at your analytics tools and sales data. Conduct customer surveys and market research. Monitor online reviews and speak to customer service agents.
Figure out what promotions were most popular what time of year sales peak and what customers complain about. Together all this information will empower your team to create a transformative eCommerce plan.
Your eCommerce strategy needs to contribute to your overall business goals. So be sure to set clear marketing objectives that will benefit your brand.
Everyone wants to increase sales and conversions. But consider what else is important. Young brands might want to improve visibility and name recognition. While established brands may prefer to chase profits by increasing AOV and ROI. To avoid PR blunders it's also a good idea to set objectives that connect with your brand vision and mission.
Once you know your objectives you can craft an eCommerce strategy that will help you progress towards them.
Remember your brand's online rivals could be different to the ones you compete with in retail stores. So conducting a competitor analysis is necessary to determine who your closest competitors are and how they're performing.
A Where to Buy solution can help your brand track consumer behavior and identify competing products. While a share of search analysis will provide a reliable indication of market shares.
Once you've identified key competitors examine their strategies. Do their listings rank higher on Google and Amazon? Do they use any eCommerce marketing strategies that could benefit your brand? What are their USPs?
With these three steps completed strategic planning for eCommerce becomes a lot easier. So check out these top eCommerce marketing strategies and consider if they're right for your brand.
The online consumer journey is constantly evolving as new channels and advertising opportunities come along. But implementing shoppable media is a great way to make a wide variety of these digital touchpoints both shoppable and trackable.
With shoppable media brands can streamline the consumer journey and send shoppers straight to check out - whether they click on a video a social ad or a Buzzfeed banner. They also gain access to detailed omnichannel advertising data.
This is an essential eCommerce strategy for brands that sell products across multiple sales channels.
72% of shoppers say they'll only engage with personalized marketing messages. So it's clear to see why personalisation is a top eCommerce strategy for 2022.
Sending personalized messages and product recommendations via email and push notifications is a great way to engage app users and past customers. But brands can also use the likes of contextual advertising and retargeting to create more personal experiences for other prospects.
Cross merchandising can boost sales and provide a user-friendly experience at the same time.
By crafting product bundles product recommendations and other content that features complementary products you can increase your online order sizes and ROI. Multi-buy discounts and deals will work too.
Encouraging shoppers to upgrade to more expensive products is also a great eCommerce strategy. Brands can do this with in-store pop ups remarketing emails and smart recommendations.
Research suggests that omnichannel customers buy more than single channel ones. Offering shoppers a variety of channels is also more likely to close a sale. So make sure your products are available everywhere your audience shops. Think Amazon eBay Etsy and Walmart.
Implementing the Where to Buy solution that facilitates these omnichannel experiences is a good idea too.
Last year buy online pickup in-store fulfillment accounted for 10% of all eCommerce sales. So it's important that your eCommerce strategy incorporates click and collect orders.
By introducing BOPIS options stores like Home Depot and Dollar General experienced a sales boost. But brands that don't have their own brick-and-mortar stores can also facilitate click and collect orders with the help of a local store locator. This will direct shoppers to their nearest stockists.
The use of smartphones for shopping has more than doubled since 2018 and mobile devices now account for 53% of all web traffic. That's why it's crucial to put mobile shopping at the core of your strategic planning for eCommerce.
To take advantage of on-the-go consumers consider:
Brands use up big chunks of their budgets driving consumers to their product pages so it's essential that they're optimised. This can boost sales and ROAS. On the likes of Amazon and eBay it can also improve a brand's search rankings.
Optimising your listings will take some time but it's pretty simple to do. Carefully consider pricing descriptions product images and keywords. Where possible include social proof in the form of star ratings and customer reviews too.
Shoppers trust user-generated content more than ads. That's why it's important to add elements of social proof to your eCommerce marketing messages.
So be sure to add shoppable ratings to your website and product ads. Promoting positive reviews endorsements and customer photos on social media is a good idea too.
This adds credibility to your marketing campaigns and can make shoppers trust your brand enough to convert.
Retaining a customer costs a lot less than acquiring a new one so it makes sense for brands to introduce loyalty programmes that will keep shoppers coming back for more.
Of course you need to give them an incentive to sign up. Exclusive discounts free samples coupons and early access to sales are all great ways to win them over. But connecting rewards and loyalty points with the amount customers spend is the best way to increase sales.
Delivery costs are a big driver of cart abandonment. In fact 49% of shoppers say it has prevented them from checking out. So introducing free delivery makes a lot of sense.
However if this costs too much consider implementing a free shipping threshold instead. This way customers can benefit from free delivery once they spend a certain amount.
It's wise to make the threshold a little bit higher than your brand's AOV as this will ensure shoppers spend more.
With more consumers shopping online than ever before now is the time to invest in your eCommerce marketing strategies. Once in place continuous optimisation will be necessary. But with the right tracking tools in place your team can confidently create an eCommerce strategy that will boost your bottom line satisfy customers and attain your business goals.
